Broadcasting Board of Governors: The Good, The Bad, The Nonsensical

  • February 11, 2012
by The Federalist Ted Lipien’s recent op-ed piece in The Washington Times, “LIPIEN: VOA harms Putin opposition in Russia Faked interviews, lax Web security are signs a shakeup is needed,” took the Voice of America’s (VOA) Russian Service to the woodshed for its recent fiasco of posting a fake interview with a leading Russian opposition leader and dissident blogger.

BBG orders that contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving

  • February 11, 2012
BBG Watch has learned that at the Governance Committee meeting this week, the Committee adopted unanimously (all four Governors present were: Michael Lynton, Susan McCue, Dennis Mulhaupt and Victor Ashe; Lynton and McCue participated by phone) a motion directing that all contractors be paid on time by Thanksgiving of this year.

Absentee member Michael Lynton pushed to become temporary Broadcasting Board of Governors chair

  • February 8, 2012
Sources tell BBG Watch that Democrats on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) are pushing for Michael Lynton, an absentee member, to become temporary BBG chair until a permanent chairman is named, whenever that may be. Lynton has distinguished himself for being the worst absentee board member. He has missed at least five BBG meetings, including the January one

Victor Ashe says treatment of contract employees by BBG executives amounts to abuse of the system

  • January 31, 2012
In an open challenge to Broadcasting Board of Governors executives who can’t stand him, BBG member Victor Ashe told the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper (“Victor Ashe advocates for contract workers“) that some contract employees at the Voice of America (VOA) have been working there 18 to 25 years. “To me, it’s an abuse of the system. They are not represented by unions or an association,” Ashe said.

Will fundraising for Obama get Dick Lobo chairmanship of Broadcasting Board of Governors?

  • January 31, 2012
BBG Watch Commentary There have been rumors that Richard Lobo, the current director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), is being considered by the White House for the position of the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). IBB and Voice of America (VOA) are some of the elements of the BBG, which manages all U.S. government-funded civilian international broadcasting and Internet news operations.

CUSIB Statement on the Resignation of BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson

  • January 31, 2012
The independent Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB), which supports media freedom abroad and was opposed to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) plans to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and television broadcasts to China, has issued a statement on the announced resignation of the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson.

Have a backup plan: VOA Director David Ensor on satellite TV signal jamming

  • January 27, 2012
Voice of America (VOA) Director David Ensor has commented on the Iranian jamming of VOA satellite television signals. His is a significant post since it exposes the ability of any country or even a group of people to render satellite television programs useless. That leaves the Internet and shortwave radio.

VOA Reporter Killed In Pakistan, BBG Watch urges BBG to do more to take care of contract and overseas-based employees

  • January 17, 2012
BBG Watch reporters and contributors, many of us former and current Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employees, are shocked and saddened by the killing in Pakistan of Mukarram Khan Aatif, a reporter for Voice of America’s Deewa Radio. This tragedy shows what great sacrifices Voice of America overseas-based contract employees make everyday. Mukarram Khan Aatif was a hero

‘Old white guys’ meet ‘cute young intern’ and First Amendment at the Broadcasting Board of Governors

  • January 16, 2012
A commentary by BBG Watch Cute High School Intern Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials have gotten so used to running their small federal agency like their own private country club that they still frequently forget that at least some of their meetings can now be viewed online. While the video from the last BBG meeting was streamed live, the on demand link to the video has not worked since then

Isaacson compromises in battle over public control of U.S. international broadcasting

  • January 16, 2012
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) chairman Walter Isaacson has modified some of his positions on the reorganization of U.S. international broadcasting in response to criticism and pressure from individuals and groups opposed to limiting public ownership and control of U.S. Government’s journalistic communications with foreign audiences.

Architects of BBG’s failed China plan rewarded with new positions

  • January 11, 2012
Two Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) officials described by BBG Watch sources as chief architects of the failed BBG plan to end Voice of America (VOA) radio and TV broadcasts to China have been rewarded with new positions. The International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo named Bruce Sherman as director of a newly-formed Office of Strategy and Development. Lobo also named Jeff Trimble as IBB deputy director.

BBG seeks centralization of news output

  • January 11, 2012
The BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson and his executives love centralization and central planning. (They developed a Five-Year Strategic Plan — five-year plans, does that sound familiar?) Never mind that the surrogate broadcasters like Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were established in West Germany in the 1950s as a counterbalance to the overly-centralized Voice of America (VOA) with its headquarters in New York and later in Washington, DC. BBG executives now want to undermine the independence and specialization of the surrogate broadcasters by merging them into a new large bureaucracy and creating a global news network.

BBG seeking social media newsroom contractor – consultant, possibly for friend of current manager

  • January 11, 2012
This particular announcement for a an experienced social media newsroom consultant at the Broadcasting Board of Governors strikes us as being written for a particular person who may be a friend or former associate of a BBG manager or a top-level contractor already employed by some of the former CNN executives who are taking over the management of the agency under the nepotism rule of the BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson, who himself is a former CNN executive.

Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty places article about its employees’ samizdat on internal website

  • January 11, 2012
From a BBG Watch source in Prague: Incidentally, Alsou Taheri’s article, “Samizdat at Radio Free Europe – Radio Liberty describes discrimination against foreigners, women and ‘old white guys’,” was very alarming to RFE/RL management. In order to fight “samizdat”, they placed the article on the Radio’s intranet system! Nothing like that has ever happened before.
Read More
  • 1 minute read

NewsChief.com on Senator Coburn, Broadcasting Board of Governors and government waste

  • January 11, 2012
As reported by NewsChief.com, federal agencies owned or leased more than 662,000 cars, vans, sport-utility vehicles, buses and ambulances, which consume about 1 million gallons of fuel per day and cost $4.6 billion per year to maintain. The NewsChief.com article, published January 8, 2012, quotes from a report by Sen

FedSmith.com links to Lobo-bonuses story, offers salary search

  • January 2, 2012
FedSmith.com, an information portal for sources of information impacting the federal community, has posted a summary of the BBG Watch report, “Leader of federal agency with lowest leadership ratings justifies cash awards for executives,” giving the article about the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo’s faulty logic hundreds of views on BBGWatch.com.

Leader of federal agency with lowest leadership ratings justifies cash awards for executives

  • January 2, 2012
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) employees are both annoyed and amused by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) Director Richard Lobo’s memo in which he justifies bonuses paid to BBG executives as being in line with awards received by executives employed by other federal agencies. As some employees point out, there is a problem with the logic of Lobo’s line of reasoning.
Read More
  • 1 minute read

Broadcasting Board Governor Victor Ashe praised for listening to employee concerns

  • January 2, 2012
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 1812 (AFGE Local 1812) published a report on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) member Victor Ashe’s recent visit to the Edward R. Murrow Transmitting Station in Greenville, North Carolina, praising him for reaching out to BBG employees and openly discussing their concerns. It is highly unusual for BBG members to regularly meet with groups of employees and for the union representing the BBG workforce to praise a BBG member.
Read More
  • 1 minute read

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on 70 years of VOA broadcasting to China

  • December 22, 2011
BBG Watch is releasing a full transcript of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s special video statement on the 70th anniversary of Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting to China. While her statement did appear on the VOA Chinese website, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) Public Affairs Office refused employee requests to issue a press release on the 70th anniversary reception hosted on Capitol Hill by Congressman Dana Rohrabaher on December 6, 2011 and on the statement by the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.